Thursday, September 24, 2015

Roasting hard winter squashes whole makes them a lot easier to cut into. You also need to cook them a bit longer, so you are trading the cutting into a hard squash for some extra time running the oven.

To do this, take a whole squash and score the outside by poking it with a fork or a knife a half a dozen times. Place it on a cookie sheet (or not, but they drip sometimes), and put into the oven at 350 for an hour to an hour and a half. It is done when it is soft for a fork.

If you let this cool, you can easily peel the skin and use it for such delisiousness as pancakes (here and here). You could even sub it for sweet potatoes in recipes like this.

This recipe is also from The Joy of Pickling and it is for Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce. I am looking forward to dipping grilled chicken breast in this sauce.

If my hands weren't smelling like garlic before, they certainly were sticky and full of garlic after getting 1/4 cup of it for this recipe.

I substituted honey at 1/2 the amount for the sugar in the recipe. She is specific about the temperatures, and at one point even calls for a candy thermometer if you have it. This recipe also differs from the others in that it is cooked.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Part 2 of my Goodness That's a Lot of Peppers series is another sauce I found in The Joy of Pickling.

This one is Southeast Asian Chile-Garlic Relish and I tasted it tonight with a sausage and MAN, it is spicy! It was incredibly delicious, so I had about a teaspoon of it (hence the name "relish"). But then it had an afterburn on my tongue that required some milk swishing and a banana. Then I got hot~ my whole body. Suffice it to say, try this in moderation but it is worth trying.

I halved the recipe, which is hot peppers, garlic, salt, and cider vinegar.

Friday, September 18, 2015

What to do when life gives you peppers?

Make hot sauce, of course!

After staring at the pile of peppers for a day and deciding they weren't getting any fresher, I turned to The Joy of Pickling for some inspiration. This cookbook has been a great resource for creative and delicious recipes. It didn't disappoint today.

I found three that looked good, and had enough hot peppers to make them all.

The first was a Pique, which was super easy to make and she describes it as an easy restaurant-style condiment. It's basically hot pepper infused cider vinegar.

To make it, I used an old vinegar jar and sliced up the peppers and garlic, and added them and 12 peppercorns and some salt, then the cider vinegar. It's on my counter for 2 days before I get to try it.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

These soft and cozy crops were too long for me. Like I-went-for-a-walk-in-them-and-had-to-fold-them-up too long. So I took the scissors to them and cut them just around knee height.

What to do with the excess?

Make little boy shorts, of course! For my four year-old.

To make these, I measured the cut ends against his leg and determined the length was right but they would need an added waistband instead of a rolled-over one.

Then I cut the angled crotch seam and stitched the sides together, right sides together.

Next, I measured his waist to a snug fit against some 4-way stretch fabric (you could always do any fabric and add a piece of elastic inside), and cut it about 4" wide. I stitched it into a loop. Then I folded it over and put the right sides together around the waist. The seams both face up, towards where the body goes, when you use this method. Then I stitched it around once with a regular stitch and again with a wide zig zag (faux serge) next to the seam.

Viola! Cutest shorts ever and a pair of crops that I can go use for walking.

Friday, September 4, 2015

We do like baking, and the kids eat bread. My grandfather was a renowned baker, and my older son is named after him. We used to make challahs often (as in this old photo), and stopped for a while.

Last week, my younger son and I made homemade dinner rolls with this recipe, and they were quite good (or so I hear). It was fun for the kids to roll the dough into one inch balls, and stuff three per cup. We changed the recipe by chopping fresh rosemary and putting it on top of the rolls before baking. We also used coconut milk instead of cow's milk, and it turned out fine.

Monday, August 31, 2015

This "ice cream" was inspired by the cookbook Well Fed 2, which, like the original Well Fed, is a wellspring of recipes and inspiration. The kids like to make it, or eat it (or both!). It is good both freshly made, as soft serve, or we freeze any leftovers in our popsicle molds, or if those are full, in little cups with popsicle sticks in them.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Sometimes the best way to find the energy to give to those around us is to make sure that our own cup is full. One way of doing this is to keep your body in good working condition. Here is a week of workouts to help you do that.

These can be done at home or at the gym, and with or without a little LITTLE company.

Before all of the weightlifting days, warm up. Do some jumping jacks and some plank hand walk outs (Google "inchworm exercise" for help if you need it). Do some stretching like rolling on a foam roller and some hip flexor stretches.

Also, some of the exercises below are grouped together ("sets"). Do one then the other without a break. Take a break if you need it before starting from the top of the set again. Repeat the set three times through. You should choose a weight that is hard enough that the last three repetitions are difficult but manageable. Try for 8-12 reps of each exercise. If you need a break, try to do it between sets, but by all means, take it when you need it.

If you are unclear about what any of the exercises are, YouTube has an amazing library of videos of people demonstrating these exercises. You can also use the daily themes as a general guide and do exercises that are more familiar to you.

Above all, have fun! Remember that you are giving yourself an amazing gift: your health, both mentally and physically. You are also giving the gift of being a better you to your family.

Monday~Never miss a Monday!:Upper Body

band or assisted pull ups- can also substitute laying under the kitchen table and pulling up

band or assisted dips - can substitute by putting your body between two chairs as your dip station; use your legs as much or as little as necessary to assist

bench press or chest press or even a floor press- use dumbbells or a barbell

seated row at the gym (the cable machine) or double bent over row at home- use a dumbbell or barbell (or a weighted bar or sandbag)

push ups (on your knees is fine- make sure your back stays flat and head is up)

dumbbell row (back flat, lean over, do one arm at a time)

cable lat pull down (sub with a pull up at home or TRX row or bar hang)

cable chest press (angle down~ set the bar higher than your chest)

cable cross abs high (can sub standing and crossing the body with a band in both hands from high to across the chest- or bicycle sit ups)

cable straight abs (can sub Pallof press- which is using a band and pressing hands in and out while standing- or sit ups)

dumbbell shoulder press (keep your shoulders down)

ab roller (can sub a plank)

Tuesday:Lower Body~Friends don't let friends skip leg day!

jump rope/ trx squat and trx lunges at end of warm up (can sub walking lunges)

deadlift (kettlebell)

kettlebell swing

jump rope

farmer's carry

kettlebell rack squat (or goblet squat, can also use a dumbbell)

trx pistol squat (or bodyweight squat- go just below 90 degrees)

front lunge (harder is Bulgarian split squat)

ball hip bridge (harder is one legged)

dead bug with ball (the swiss ball here helps remind you to keep the opposite arm and leg up all the time)

Wednesday:Cardio and Core

easy cardio 45 min

swiss ball plank (hands on ball)

swiss ball saw (hands on ball, roll the ball in and out)

hold a forearm plank for a minute

Thursday:Full Body

Pull ups or TRX rows (try the assisted pull up machine or bands to help if you need them)